Allow TinkerbellMachine to be removed when no Hardware exists:

controller/machine/hardware.go

@@ -279,18 +279,6 @@ func (scope *machineReconcileScope) releaseHardware(hw *tinkv1.Hardware) error {
 	delete(hw.ObjectMeta.Labels, HardwareOwnerNameLabel)
 	delete(hw.ObjectMeta.Labels, HardwareOwnerNamespaceLabel)
 	delete(hw.ObjectMeta.Annotations, HardwareProvisionedAnnotation)
-	/*
-		// setting the AllowPXE=true indicates to Smee that this hardware should be allowed
-		// to netboot. FYI, this is not authoritative.
-		// Other hardware values can be set to prohibit netbooting of a machine.
-		// See this Boots function for the logic around this:
-		// https://github.com/tinkerbell/smee/blob/main/internal/ipxe/script/ipxe.go#L112
-		for _, ifc := range hw.Spec.Interfaces {
-			if ifc.Netboot != nil {
-				ifc.Netboot.AllowPXE = ptr.To(true)
-			}
-		}
-	*/
 
 	controllerutil.RemoveFinalizer(hw, infrastructurev1.MachineFinalizer)
 

controller/machine/scope.go

@@ -199,10 +199,30 @@ func (scope *machineReconcileScope) DeleteMachineWithDependencies() error {
 	scope.log.Info("Removing machine", "hardwareName", scope.tinkerbellMachine.Spec.HardwareName)
 	// Fetch hw for the machine.
 	hw := &tinkv1.Hardware{}
-	if err := scope.getHardwareForMachine(hw); err != nil {
+
+	err := scope.getHardwareForMachine(hw)
+	if err != nil && !apierrors.IsNotFound(err) {
 		return err
 	}
 
+	// If the Hardware is not found, we can't do any BMC operations. In this case we just remove all
+	// the other dependencies and remove the finalizer from the TinkerbellMachine object so that it can be deleted.
+	if apierrors.IsNotFound(err) {
+		scope.log.Info("Hardware not found, only template, workflow and finalizer will be removed",
+			"hardwareName", scope.tinkerbellMachine.Spec.HardwareName,
+		)
+
+		if err := scope.removeTemplate(); err != nil && !apierrors.IsNotFound(err) {
+			return fmt.Errorf("removing Template: %w", err)
+		}
+
+		if err := scope.removeWorkflow(); err != nil && !apierrors.IsNotFound(err) {
+			return fmt.Errorf("removing Workflow: %w", err)
+		}
+
+		return scope.removeFinalizer()
+	}
+
 	if err := scope.removeDependencies(hw); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}